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Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Preservation and Proposition

Our mission is to document the pivotal Second Amendment events that occurred in Frontier Mercersburg, and its environs, and to heighten awareness of the importance of these events in the founding of our Nation.

We are dedicated to the preservation of the place where the Second Amendment was "born" and to the proposition that the Second Amendment (the "right to bear arms") is the keystone of our Liberty and the Republic.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Liberals are trying every tool at their disposal this year to go after guns. They have failed on Capitol Hill to restrict the Second Amendment, so they are moving through the states to enact their agenda. The latest maneuver is to hike the tax on guns and ammunition to dissuade the law-abiding from buying firearms. It's the perfect storm of liberalism - more revenue for a bigger government and fewer people keeping and bearing arms.

President Obama's hometown of Chicago started the movement late last year by enacting a $25 tax on new firearm purchases, which went into effect on April 1. Cook County stopped just short of adding a levy on ammunition. In February, Rep. Linda T. Sanchez, California Democrat, and 26 of the most uber-liberals in the House introduced a bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code to create an excise tax of 10 percent on any concealable gun in order to empower Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to establish a firearms buy-back grant program. Since the Newtown, Conn., school-shootings tragedy, anti- gun states across the nation have introduced similar measures.
A new bill in the House would prevent this infringement on the Second Amendment. Rep. Sam Graves introduced legislation on June 13 that would make it illegal for states and municipalities to raise taxes or fees on firearms and ammunition. The Missouri Republican's proposal would also prevent raising taxes in order to pay for background checks. "The Constitution says 'shall not infringe,' " Mr. Graves told me in an interview Thursday. "When you place this outrageous tax on the sale of ammunition and firearms, it's intended to curtail those rights." Congress has authority to do this under Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution to regulate interstate commerce, which these taxes suppress. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents the manufacturers, and the National Rifle Association both endorsed the Graves bill, which will go through the House Judiciary Committee.

Massachusetts is considering a 25 percent excise tax on all firearms, ammunition and parts as part of its overall gun-control agenda. The Nevada Assembly is moving on a bill to impose a $25 tax on each gun and 2 cents for each round of ammunition sold by a dealer. Connecticut legislators proposed this year a 50-cent sales tax on ammunition. Washington state is considering a proposal to tax every firearm sold at retail at $25 (lowered to $15 if the buyer springs for a gun safe or gun lock) and 1 cent on each round of ammunition.

The states with the most radical proposals are Maryland and Connecticut, both of which are proposing raising taxes on ammunition by 50 percent. Alcohol, which is not guaranteed by the Constitution but leads to more deaths than firearms, is the only other item in the Free State that is taxed higher than the 6 percent sales tax, but it is only 9 percent. Several other states are also going after bullets because they are purchased more often than guns. A bill introduced in New Jersey proposes a 7 percent levy on ammunition sales. The California Assembly is considering a bill to impose a 5- cent-per-round levy on retailers for "the privilege of selling ammunition."

These costly measures disproportionately affect lower-income people, who often live in higher-crime areas. Along with other costly mandates, such as maintaining liability insurance, these restrictions would likely be overturned as unconstitutional by the courts. "This is no different than a poll tax - but on the Second Amendment," said Lawrence Keane, general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. "These anti-gun politicians are clearly trying to unduly burden the exercise of the Second Amendment by pricing firearms and ammunition out of reach of many law-abiding Americans. Mr. Graves' bill will put a stop to these sinister schemes."

Meanwhile, Mr. Graves correctly points out that the gun grabbers' efforts have backfired so far. "The Obama administration has tried to capitalize on some unfortunate instances to try to slow down the sale of firearms and ammo. The irony is that the pressure to outlaw or control the sale of firearms, it just accelerates sales. It's like pouring gas on a fire." The number of FBI background checks were up 27 percent in March, leading to the Senate vote the next month on Mr. Obama's gun-control agenda. The national instant criminal-background checks were up 20 percent in April.

Liberals love to raise taxes to push their social agenda, whether to push us out of our cars, stop us from smoking, force us to eat low-fat foods or curtail our drinking of alcohol. In their worldview, individuals are not capable of being responsible for their own health and well-being, so they need the nanny state to enforce proper behavior via their pocketbooks. However, unlike cigarettes and martinis, guns are guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. The House should pass the Graves bill quickly to show the states that their gun-grabbing scam will misfire.

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It All Started Here . . .

Frontier Mercersburg in 1765 was the "birthplace" of the right we now refer to as "the Second Amendment", or, "the right to bear arms". It was here that individuals for the first time, some would say divinely, embraced the link between "Life and Liberty". . . and struck the first blow for Freedom.

Historically the right to bear arms goes back even before our founding as a nation to the Glorious Revolution of 1689 when William III agreed to the English Bill of Rights. If one can look at revolution like a volcanic eruption in nature, you understand that often from the destruction come the seeds of new human values and beliefs. In this case the independence of the human spirit, the right to know God for oneself, and to trust your conscience was hard won in this revolution of the human soul.

One crucible begets the necessity for another and on the frontier in America the right to defend ones religious beliefs was becoming the right to participate in the decisions of government that impact my "self". Freedom of the soul was becoming freedom of the heart and mind. Smith's Rebellion began as an act they justified under the rubric of defending oneself because government had failed in its obligation to protect Life, Liberty and Property. This was the first assertion of this principle aimed directly at British Military Authority as well as the incompetent government of John Penn - anywhere in the colonies.

In the end, Smith's Rebellion was the first armed resistance against British Military Rule leading up to the American Revolution. It was the first American triumph over the best military force in the world. It was the first time upon defending oneself that Americans had proclaimed we can rule ourselves.

It would be ten years before the battles at Lexington and Concord.

...Let Them Take Arms

The "Right to Bear Arms" . . .or 2nd Amendment is one of the most discussed and contentious of all the amendments of the Bill of Rights. It is, in fact, the only amendment that contains not only the seeds but the actual instruments of the revolution itself. Further, it gives real affirmation to Thomas Jefferson's quote . . .

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

It is for this reason, if no other, that the Government and its functionaries vociferously assail and obfuscate the text of this simple assertion. More, it is for this reason, and in the face of the perennial onslaught that its defense and affirmation is essential to the survival of the republic.

Frontier Mercersburg & The Justice William Smith House

The frontier town of Mercersburg, PA. in the 1760's, although typical of many settlements along the Appalachian Mountains played a pivotal role in the creation of what was to become the "Bill of Rights".

Frontiersmen like James Smith and the Black Boys, many of whom were inhabitants of the Mercersburg environs, were early participants in a series of conflicts with the British government that established principles the eventually lead to the inclusion of the "right to bear arms" in the Bill of Rights.

Much of the focus, centers on the domicile (and likely place of business) of Justice William Smith.